Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not take part in Olympics

TBILISI, DFWatch–The two Georgian breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not take part in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as independent nations.

Georgia’s National Olympic Committee has received a letter from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) saying that according to the Olympic Charter, the IOC does not recognize either Abkhazia or South Ossetia.

The letter says the IOC recognizes the jurisdiction Georgia’s National Olympic Committee as applying to the whole territory of Georgia as it is recognized by the UN and the international community.

The letter is a response to recent concern in Georgia that the two breakaway areas would have separate Olympic teams after the Russian Olympic Committee listed them as independent states in the registration form.

Georgia’s Olympic Committee wrote a letter to the IOC and the organizing group of the Sochi Olympics.

Sochi lies just 40 kilometers away from Abkhazia, a region which split from Georgia after a bloody war in the 90s and is currently under Russian control. Over two hundred thousand refugees are still waiting to return. Most of the world’s countries consider the region part of Georgia.